MORNING MELODIES
"But I sing of thy strength,
a morning song to thy love."
(_Psa. 59:16, Moffatt_).
"For lovely morning songs we have:
(1)
'Come, my soul, thou must be waking;
Now is breaking
O'er the earth another day.'
(2)
'When morning gilds the skies,
My heart awaking cries,
May Jesus Christ be praised!'
(3)
'Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish
Thee will I honor,
Thee, my soul's Glory, Joy, and Crown.'
The third of these is something which seems to me a perfect
hymn."--From an address by Dean Howard Chandler Robbins at the
Northfield General Conference, 1938.
The Morning Call
Her father was a lay preacher, and she, a school teacher, followed in
his steps. She was in the pulpit on that Sunday morning when an American
citizen visited the country of his birth, in the summer of 1946 to
observe post-war conditions. He was now amid familiar scenes in the far
south of England. The morning was full of glorious sunshine, and he went
to church as he had done when a boy. Then he wrote an account of the
service, and sent it to his home folks.
What, he wondered, would be the hymn which this "spiritually and
mentally disciplined woman" might select for the opening of the service.
That question was answered when this preacher-daughter of a
preacher-father announced the charming lines of Geoffrey A. Studdert
Kennedy:
"Awake, awake to love and work,
The lark is in the sky,
The fields are wet with diamond dew,
The worlds awake to cry
Their blessings on the Lord of Life,
As He goes meekly by."
There the visitor blended his voice with some of those he had known in
his boyhood days as they together worshipped in the village church. The
preacher stood in the pulpit with the ease of one born to it, and
"joined in the singing with the full-voiced enthusiasm of a thrush or
mockingbird on a spring morning."
This song is placed among the morning hymns in _The Hymnal_ of the
Protestant Episcopal Church (1940). Imaginative and impressive is the
language used in the second verse:
"Come, let thy voice be one with theirs,
Shout with their shout of praise;
See how the giant sun roars up,
Great Lord of years and days!
So let the love of Jesus come
And set thy soul ablaze."
"Woodbine Willie" was the name, for some reason, given to the author
when he became a chaplain in World War I. His was a charmed name in the
army, and his experiences there "made him an enthusiast for peace." He
became a rector in London, and in 1924 he made a visit to the United
States and added many persons to the long list of friends already his.
Death came to him in Liverpool in 1929. Someone characterized him as
"the wholly lovable prophet of social righteousness." Through coming
years he will continue to speak to the hearts of many who joyfully sing
his inspiring morning hymn with its lilting tune.
Morning Hymn on an Ocean Voyage
Time for reflection is found on an ocean voyage, and, as the writer and
many others can testify, lasting impressions are often made. Such an
experience came to one who was making a trip around the world in the
days between two world wars. "The sea," said he, "was not a friend of
mine as we rode the mountainous waves for nearly three weeks without a
port of call." Much of the time, indeed, he lay in his cabin simply
watching the rising and the falling of the waves through the porthole.
A Sunday morning, however, dawned fair and bright; and he found himself
"able to make his way to the top deck for divine worship." Never, he
confessed, was he more deeply touched by a hymn than when the company of
passengers, and some members of the crew, united in singing as their
opening hymn:
"New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought."
The memory of that hymn proved to be cheering and invigorating. He later
wrote: "How beautiful this sunny Sunday morning with no land, or fish,
or bird in sight. Just the sun, the sky, and the sea. How sacred the
upper deck seemed that morning! Can you not believe that I never hear
this hymn sung without again feeling the waves lifting me, the scene
crowding my brain with its poignancy--sea, sky, sun, and God's care
through another night on the ocean waves."
A brilliant scholar was John Keble, author of "The Christian Year," from
which this hymn comes. It is regarded as one "of the greatest religious
classics in the English language." This tribute has been paid to this
work by Nutter and Tillett: "What the Prayer Book is in prose for public
worship, 'The Christian Year' is in poetry for private devotion."
Mentally suggestive are the lines which have such a direct relation to
daily living:
"New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven."
Morning Songs Fill the Day with Music
Skilled in both the art and science of making lovely gardens, Silas
Kenton loved to sing while working. The story of this interesting
English gardener was related by the Rev. S. Horton in "Say It with
Song."
"Good morning, Kenton," was the cheery greeting of Lady Lawder, by whom
he was employed, one day. Then she added: "You were singing early this
morning, Silas. I could hear you as I lay in bed."
"I hope I didn't disturb your ladyship," he answered. "I had forgotten
the green-houses were so near your room. It was thoughtless of me and I
am sorry indeed."
"Well, it did wake me up, but I didn't mind. What was it you were
singing? The tune was familiar to me."
"It was an old favorite of mine," replied Silas:
"'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.'"
The musical gardener then made this observation: "You see, ma'am, when
the world gets busy, there are doubtless thousands upon thousands of
singers whose songs are rising like sweet music to the skies. I like to
think that most mornings I'm one of the earliest of the Lord's servants
offering my tribute of praise. Besides I always think a few songs before
breakfast fill the heart with music all the day."
Hymn Suggested by a "Blaze of Leafage"
For eight months an English Episcopalian bishop confined to a Japanese
prison saw no sunlight. But this prisoner of war did witness what he
described as "a blaze of leafage on some trees." This sight recalled to
the mind of the bishop a hymn from the heart and pen of Charles Wesley:
"Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of righteousness, arise,
Triumph o'er the shades of night;
Day-Spring from on high, be near;
Day-Star, in my heart appear."
This experience which came to Dr. J. L. Wilson, Bishop of Singapore, who
was representing the Church of England, stood out above all others, and
represented the value of a mind stored with memories of hymns. Three
thousand people listened most attentively for forty-five minutes in the
City Hall, Sheffield, England, in September, 1946, as the speaker
narrated experiences which can come only in war time.
A reporter was among those who heard with amazement the words of the
bishop as he explained how, charged with being a "spy," he was
"imprisoned, tortured, and flogged with ropes almost beyond endurance"
by the Japanese. Four thousand persons were crowded into a prison
designed to accommodate seven hundred. They were a courageous company,
however. "When men and women came downstairs bleeding from torture, they
might not speak; but they smiled, and the others smiled back." Bishop
Wilson was the only "European among Malayans, Indians and Chinese." But
his fellow-prisoners, observing his firmness and forgiving spirit, asked
him to teach them to pray.
Bread and wine were lacking, but Bishop Wilson used tea or water in the
celebration of the Holy Communion on Sundays. "It might be irregular,"
the speaker remarked with a smile; but he could not be convinced that it
was not valid. A Christian girl, he learned, was there for helping the
British, and the elements were passed through the prison bars to her.
The hymn which lifted the soul of the imprisoned bishop above his
immediate surroundings came from the singing spirit of Charles Wesley,
and appeared in 1740 in his "Hymns and Sacred Poems." The hymnology of
both British and American Methodism is enriched by the inclusion of this
song of worship; and it is also found in the _Hymnal_ of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, _The Hymnal_ (Presbyterian), _The Hymnary_ (of the
United Church of Canada), _The Inter-Church Hymnal_, etc. The three
verses will be found "full of the sunshine of which they sing," observed
Dr. Charles S. Robinson. Lovers of literature will be especially
interested in a comment made by Dr. James Moffatt, where he says,
"George Eliot uses this hymn in _Adam Bede_ describing how Seth Bede,
the young Methodist, on leaving his brother one Sunday morning in
February, 'walked leisurely homeward, mentally repeating one of his
favorite hymns.' _It was this one._"
Easy is it, therefore, for us to imagine Bishop Wilson, the
liberty-loving Englishman, confined to a sunless prison in a foreign
country, catching a glimpse of "a blaze of leafage on some trees," then
refreshing his singing spirit by mentally repeating the lines which he
had often joined with others in publicly singing when a youth in his
homeland:
"Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by Thee;
Joyless is the day's return
Till Thy mercy's beams I see;
Till they inward light impart,
Cheer my eyes and warm my heart."
"Stone walls do not a prison make" when one has a song in his soul. And
he who knows his hymnal well has one for every occasion.